Women Writers
Dr. Ramirez
Amy Tan's Kitchen God's Wife, Chapters 1-3

Write for 10-15 minutes on the tensions between mother and daughter in the first three chapters.  What are some of the sources of conflict?

Amy Tan
b. February 19, 1952-
Oakland, California. Daughter to Chinese immigrant parents.
Her father, John, was an engineer and Baptist minister and her mother, Daisy (had three daughters in China), was a vocational nurse.
Amy Tan attended San Jose State University (BA in English, MA in English and Linguistics)
Embarked on postgraduate study at UC Berkeley. She has worked as a speech therapist and technical writer.

Author of novels and children's stories, as well as co-author of the Screenplay for Joy Luck Club
Her novels include::
The Joy Luck Club.  1989.
Kitchen God's Wife. 1991.
The Hundred Secret Senses. 1995.
The Bonesetter's Daughter. 2001.

The Kitchen God's Wife
Settings:
San Francisco, California and China
(See brief history at http://www.asterius.com/china)
Characters:
Winnie
Jimmie Louie
Helen
Pearl
Phil
Bao-Bao
Terms:
From the Encyclopedia Britannica, online
Multiple Sclerosis (MS): chronic degenerative disease of the central nervous system. In multiple sclerosis the myelin sheath that protects the neural fibers is progressively destroyed. What initiates this destruction remains unknown, but various factors such as a virus, immune system abnormality, or allergic reaction, have been suggested as playing a role in the onset and progression of the disease. Multiple sclerosis is the most prevalent demyelinating disease in the United States. Although medication and physical therapy can alleviate many symptoms in some individuals, no cure has been found despite intensive research efforts. . .
MS generally strikes people between the ages of 20 and 40, though there are reports of cases beginning earlier or later in some individuals. More than twice as many women as men are affected. The disease is found more commonly among people in colder climates, though the reason for this is unknown. MS is not hereditary, though a person who has a first degree relative—a parent or sibling—with MS is at a higher risk for developing the disease.

From the Encyclopedia Britannica, online
Buddhism: The religion of about one eighth of the world's people, Buddhism is the name for a complex system of beliefs developed around the teachings of a single man. The Buddha, whose name was Siddhartha Gautama, lived 2,500 years ago in India. There are now dozens of different schools of Buddhist philosophy throughout Asia. These schools, or sects, have different writings and languages and have grown up in different cultures. There is no one single “Bible” of Buddhism, but all Buddhists share some basic beliefs.
Budh in the Indian Sanskrit language means “to wake up, to know.” Buddha means “the Awakened or Enlightened One,” and all Buddhist teachings try to share the  Buddha's experience of awakening to truth. . .
Buddhists all believe in the idea of “no-self,” that people make a mistake when they identify too strongly with their own personal existence in any one life. To the follower of the Buddha, life goes on and on in many reincarnations or rebirths. This wheel of rebirth, known as samsara, condemns the individual to the suffering of being alive and striving. Life's goal, according to the Buddha, is to escape from this cycle of rebirth, to stop being born as a suffering individual with selfish cravings and
passions. This release is called Nirvana, the highest bliss, the end of the self.